Brent Rogers, Kojima Japan

Soon after Destyn was born, a dear little old lady student asked me,
What kind of boy do you want your grandson to be?
I was at a loss for words, but now I know. From Psalm 15, from the New Century version, with a little tweaking.
What kind of Boy?
A boy whose walk is blameless
and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart
A boy who has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman,
A boy who despises a vile man
but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath
even when it hurts,
A boy who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things、whether boy, or old grandpa.
WILL NEVER BE SHAKEN!

Update for High School Friends

1977-84 Graduated Piggott High, Harding U. married Sandy Hougey, moved to Lubbock, TX, and India, came back to USA – SF Bay Area – two kids, three months in hospital in SF.

84-91 Lived in Concord, Walnut Creek, West Pittsburg. Preached in West Pittsburg, CA, taught ESL in high school, adult school, graduated SFSU –MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, moved to Kojima, Japan to teach for Mt. Hood Community College. Brent’s mother passed away.

91 to 97 Kojima. The college closed its Japan campus. We started our own conversation school. Made a lot of friends, a few feeble mission efforts, learned Japanese.

97 to 2001 Searcy. Kids in Harding Academy and Univ. Brent taught at Harding a little, then full-time at Augusta High for three years. Sandy at Jacksonville Jr., then two years at Augusta Elementary. We attended Cloverdale. They are now our sponsor. Sandy’s father passed away.

01 to ?? Still doing our school. We usually have have one more American with us in our school. Hope you can come visit or work here! And struggling to win some hearts for Christ. Sandy also teaches at an elementary school, where she helped start a partial-immersion English International Program. We had our first LST team in 2002, and have two more this summer, and several in between. Ben Rogers passed away. Grandkids born in 05 and 08. See photos at Rachel Rogers Patton on FB. 2007 – Brent –66 days in hospital with kidney stuff. Left kidney is not working. I am feeling good and have a lot of energy most of the time. Still in my 40s!

HEBREWS: ANCIENT ENCOURAGEMENT FOR BELIEVERS TODAY, by Edward William Fudge (Leafwood Publishers, 2009, softcover, 262 pages, $19.95. Delivery on or before May 19, 2009 ).

Interview with Edward William Fudge, author of HEBREWS: ANCIENT ENCOURAGEMENT FOR BELIEVERS TODAY

A neglected book

Q: Hebrews is not a book we hear discussed very often. Why do you suppose that is the case?

EWF: You are right about that. This neglect is very unfortunate, in my view, because Hebrews is one of the most Jesus-focused, gospel-packed books in the New Testament. You will see the evidence for that on almost every page of Hebrews: Ancient Encouragement for Believers Today.

Q: Why do most people miss this focus?

EWF: It comes from a lack of real study of Hebrews. Folks go away from it without ever seeing and appreciating the book’s real message. They assume it is just an old book about even older Jewish rituals, sacrifices and priests, with no meaning or value for them.

Why was Hebrews written?

Q: Do we know why Hebrews was written?

EWF: Yes we do, although we don’t know exactly to whom, when, where, or precisely what was going on. But we do know that, for a variety of reasons, the original recipients of Hebrews were worn out, disheartened, tempted, and seemingly about ready to walk away from their faith. The book hints at some possible causes, including persecution, passing of time, being misfits in their culture, the appeal of sin, and so forth.

Q: That situation sounds very up-to-date! How does the author of Hebrews respond to it?

EWF: I love it! To revive his readers’ spirits and to renew their commitment, the unknown author re-tells the Story – the story of the Son of God who became a man, to live and die as our representative, and who is now in heaven representing us as our High Priest. Hebrews is thoroughly focused on Jesus! Its message is always contemporary. We can never go wrong by focusing on the Savior himself. I am very pleased that several reviewers have described Hebrews: Ancient Encouragement for Believers Today in those same terms.

A ‘bridge’ commentary

Q: You call Hebrews: Ancient Encouragement for Believers Today a “bridge” commentary. What does that mean?

EWF: When it comes to Bible studies, there are two worlds out there which often never come together. One is the ivory-tower world of academic specialists with all their scholarly issues and technical jargon. The other world is where most believers live and work and worship. Hebrews: Ancient Encouragement for Believers Today attempts to bridge this gap. For example, I worked from the Greek text of Hebrews but Hebrews: Ancient Encouragement for Believers Today doesn’t have a single Greek word in it. Although the bibliography covers eight pages and includes 80+ scholarly articles from theological journals, this book uses everyday language. By linking scholarship with simplicity, I hope to give the reader the best of both worlds.

A narrative-style book

Q: You also describe Hebrews: Ancient Encouragement for Believers Today as a “narrative-style” commentary. Tell us about that.

EWF: That refers to the fact that Hebrews: Ancient Encouragement for Believers Today is written as flowing narrative, although it discusses each verse of Hebrews in detail. It does this in 48 chapters, each covering a portion of the Scripture text. Each chapter begins with a very short section called “Why & Wherefore,” which relates that section to the big picture. That is followed by “Unpacking the Text,” which goes into detail, but in narrative style, with subheads to make it read more like a typical book.

Endorsements

Q: I see that Hebrews: Ancient Encouragement for Believers Today is already endorsed by a considerable variety of notable scholars and church leaders, even before its release. Isn’t that a bit unusual?

EWF: What is somewhat uncommon in the case of Hebrews: Ancient Encouragement for Believers Today is the theological and international diversity of the endorsements. Hebrews contains a number of quite controversial passages, about which Christian “tribes” traditionally disagree. I am very pleased, therefore, that this book is recommended by knowledgeable reviewers across the spectrum.

For example, the quotes on the back cover of Hebrews: Ancient Encouragement for Believers Today come from Methodist, Calvinist, Church of Christ, Baptist, mainline Protestant, Pentecostal and Emergent church scholars. The full text of these seven endorsements, plus 29 others, fills the first six pages of the book. You can read the endorsements online already, with photos, biographical comments and (where applicable) website links of the reviewers, ,

by going to http://www.EdwardFudge.com/endorsements_Heb.html .

Fukuin article, first submission
下に日本語あります。

In this article, I would like to take a literal approach to the word and idea of disciple. I would like to look at the places Jesus went and how we can follow him.

Jesus went to a wide variety of places. Jesus went ｔo　the places where the needy people were. He went to places where there were bind, crippled, poor, and sinful people. Is that our approach? Or are we waiting for people to come to us?
Jesus did not avoid going to places where he might cause a scandal. He went to be with people not only at the top of society, but also those who were less respectable, and even to those who were despised. He often offended the people at the top by doing this. Are we willing to offend? Are we willing to cause a scandal?
Jesus was with all kinds of people. Notice his visits to the tax collector Levi and the Pharisee Simon. He was also in the marketplaces. He was not always so busy doing church things that he had no time to be with people. Are today’s Christians mixing with society? Are we involved in a robust engagement with the people around us? Or have we retreated to the safety of our churches, our homes, our computers? I know this is a small group, but of the three churches around us in Kojima, I have never seen one of the evangelists except at a church activity.
Jesus also went away to pray.
He sought out the isolation and silence of the lonely places in order to be in prayer and meditation. How far are we from spending a whole night alone in prayer? Poet George Herbert called prayer the church’s banquet, the soul’s blood. If that is so, today’s church is in danger of serious malnutrition and anemia. Both individually and corporately, we find time for entertainment, work, rest, and noise, but we are too tired or busy to pray. Especially we are too tired and busy to go away to pray, especially alone.. We can all spend a little time today to plan some time to go away to pray. Whether it is the park, the library, or the coffee shop, we can get away to pray. We can if we decide to.
Finally, Jesus went to the cross. Though Christians are very comfortable and safe in Japan, it may not always be that way. Are we ready to hang on to our faith, whatever the cost? When faced with the choice of death or simply stamping on a relief of the face of Jesus, which will we choose? If faced with the choice of saying Jesus is Lord, or Caesar is Lord, will we stand firm? What if God were to call us to Vietnam, China, or another country where our faith may cost us dearly? Are we ready to follow? Will we hear the call?
Is God calling us even now, to risk embarrassment, or scandal, to serve him in a radical way. Is God calling us out of our churches to the marketplaces? Is God calling us to mix with the despised? Is he calling us to pray, or to die? Will we hear the call?

この記事では、「弟子」という言葉とその概念について、字面通りのアプローチをしてみたいと思います。
それには、イエス様が足を運ばれた場所について検証し、私たちもそれに従っていくための方法を探りましょう。

イエス様はありとあらゆる場所に足を運ばれました。イエス様は生活が困窮した人々のもとに足を運ばれましたし、
盲目の人や足の不自由な人や貧しい人、罪深い人のもとに向かわれました。私たちも同じことをすれば良いのでしょうか？それとも、私たちは人々の方から私たちのもとにやってくるのを待てば良いのでしょうか？

イエス様は、イエス様が出向くことによって騒動が起こりそうだと思われる場所を避けることはされませんでした。
イエス様は社会の上層にいる人々との交わりのみでなく、あまり尊敬を集めていない人々や軽蔑すらされている人々とも交わりをもたれました。
イエス様は軽蔑されている人々と交わりを持たれたために、度々社会の上層の人々の気分を損ねました。
私たちは身分の高い人の気分を損ねてまで同じことができるでしょうか？騒動が起こったり、自分が悪く思われる
状況を自ら作り出すことはできるでしょうか？
イエス様は様々な種類の人間と交わりをもっておられました。収税人レビとパリサイ人のシモンを訪問されていた
のです。また、イエス様は市場にもお姿を現していました。イエス様は教会的な活動に忙しくされるあまり、人々のために
時間を割かない方では決してなかったのです。現代のクリスチャンは、社会と上手く接することができているでしょうか？
周囲の人達と積極的に関わりを持っているでしょうか？それとも、私たちは教会内や家庭やパソコンのネットワーク上の
人間関係の居心地の良さに逃げてしまっていないでしょうか？コミュニティーが小さいのは承知の上で言うと、
私は児島にある3つの教会の中で、教会のアクティビィー以外で他の伝道者を見ることが全くありません。

イエス様もまた、祈るために、人ごみを避けることがありました。
イエス様は祈りと瞑想に浸るため、静寂な場所を求められました。私たちは一晩を祈りに費やすということがあるでしょうか？
詩人のジョージ・ヒバートは「祈りとは教会の晩餐であり、魂の血である」と言いました。もしそれが本当であるなら、
今日の教会は、深刻な栄養失調と貧血の危機に瀕しています。個人レベルでも、またグループでも、私たちは娯楽や仕事や休憩や賑やかなことに時間を割きますが、祈るということになると疲れを感じたり、忙しくて時間が割けないということになりがちです。
特に、疲れていたり、忙しい時に私たちは祈るということを怠りがちです。。。
今日この日、私たち皆わずかの時間を割き、お祈りを捧げる計画をしても良いのではないでしょうか。
それが、公園であろうと、図書館であろうと、コーヒーショップであろうと、私たちはお祈りをすることができるのです。
祈りを捧げようと意志を決めれば、できるはずです。

最後に、イエス様は十字架にかかりました。今日の日本のクリスチャンは、心配もなくとても安全ですが、常にそうであったわけではありません。
私たちは、たとえその代償がどんなものでも、私たちの信仰を持ち続ける心の準備ができているでしょうか？
もし、死か、イエス様の顔の絵を踏みつけるだけのどちらかを選ばなければならないとしたら、私たちはどちらを選ぶのでしょうか？
もし、「イエス様が主である」か、「カエサルが主である」かのどちらかを宣言しなければならないとしたら、私たちは自分の信仰を固持することができるでしょうか？もし神が、ヴェトナムや中国やその他の、信仰を持つことが難しく、そのために多大な犠牲を払わなければならないような
国に私たちを召されたら、一体私たちはどうするでしょうか？私たちは、その召しに従う準備ができているでしょうか？私たちは神の召しを
聞くことができるでしょうか？
神は、今の時代でも私たちを召し、神にお仕えするためには恥ずかしい思いや人に悪く思われる危険も負わせているのでしょうか？
私たちを教会から、市場に導き出しているのでしょうか？軽蔑されている人々と交わりを持つことを望んでおられるのでしょうか？
私たちを、祈りのために、または死のために召しているのでしょうか？私たちは、その召しを聞くことができるでしょうか？

Japanee translation by MS sama, with thanks.

Kojima News 2009 February

We thank you for your prayers and we thank God for his amazing grace.

People

Mi-chan is busy with her final tests for her degree and we have not seen her for a while. Please pray for her as she decides the next steps in her future. Please pray that God will draw her closer.

An LST Reader whom I had not seen for a long time, Mr. K, lost his job and is now available for classes. He is in a real crisis, with a daughter in college and another in high school, and sees very little hope for a new job. He “wants to be a Christian”, says his mother was, but it “very hard” for Japanese to become Christians.

Rumi, also an LST Reader, with two precious children, is back in class on Fridays. She has also come to worship three times this year. We finally met her husband, too. She insists that every other week we study Japanese. So, we read a Lee Strobel book and she reads the difficult kanji. I do this with two other people each week. One is a Christian, one an atheist. Maybe he will see something to think about.

W-ko and her kids were all sick, but I still have not met
her recently.

Events

The Year is starting to take shape with Parenting Seminars and LST being planned, and a new helper on the way.

Parenting Seminar
Preliminary meetings for the next parenting seminar have begun. Looks like it will be in mid-March. Sandy’s best helper moved to Kobe, and now another long-time friend, Taiko, is starting to help.

Help on the way!

Another cousin is making plans to come to Kojima in the spring to help out for a couple of months.. Please pray for Mary as she makes plans and preparations.

LST
We are also expecting an LST team from Harding in early to mid May. We are always in awe of how God provides and surprises during these projects. There is much to prepare and pray about!

LOGOS and the economy:

The school year starts in April here, so the mothers in our community will be making decisions over the next
few weeks as to what their kids will study in the coming year. Even though Kojima is very rural, there is a bewildering variety of things to study. Instruments, Martial arts, Fine Arts, Traditional Arts, and Sports.

We don’t need a huge influx of students to stay afloat, but we need more to start than quit. Among regions In Japan, Kurashiki has been especiall y hard-hit in recent years. There is a Mitsubishi plant in Kurashiki, so in addition to your prayers, please buy a Mitsubishi or two before April. They have already idled the plant for longer than usual in the winter and closed
a hospital. Mitsubishi models made in Kurashiki will be listed on my blog as soon as I send this.
www.brentwrogers.com

And we need a huge contract with a jeans company to be renewed.

Family

We continue to ask for prayers for our kids and for our parents. The visit with grandkids makes living in Japan a little more difficult, but we trust God to sustain us. If you have no t seen pictures of Destyn or Zoiee recently, just ask!

Two favors:

In whatever format you see this, please email me brentkojima
At
Gmail.com

And let us know two things:
1. How often do you want to hear reports? Do you want to be dropped from this list?
2. Can we count on you to pray for our work? We would like to have the names of 100 praying people to sustain us as we try to plant and
pray for a harvest. Japan is not receptive now. God can change that. Maybe he will use the economic downturn to do that.

Thank you for reading and praying.

Brent and Sandy Rogers

CARS MADE In KURAIHIKI

According to a report by Boomer, who makes car seats at another company in Kojima, Mitsubishi makes the following cars in Kurashiki:

EK WAGON　i
MINICA
MINICAB
DELICA
PAJERO MINI
LANCER
GALANT FORTIS
OUTRUNDER
GALANT SPORTS BACK

Fernando Ortega– Till I reach my home

I have wondered,

And I have questioned,

The things I have known In my life.

When anger has blinded my eyes

From seeing what is right.

He has held me

And carried me through

The night.

Chorus

Through the years of my life,

Through the changes,

He’s never left me alone,

So all the days of my life

I will follow Him

Till I reach my home.

There’s coming a morning

When sorrow and shame will cease.

God’s children, who’ve suffered

Forever will live in peace.

But until then,

I will wait for Him on my knees.

Chorus 2 X

I got this from Mrs. Pecinowsky

“Lettuce hold firmly to the faith that we profess…” Hebrews 4:14

“Lettuce draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” 10:22

“Lettuce hold unswervingly to the Hope that we profess.” 10:23

“Lettuce consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good works.” 10:24

“Lettuce throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us.” 12:1

“Lettuce run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” 12:1

“Lettuce fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.” 12:2

“Lettuce be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” 12:28

The Edge of Sadness
by Edwin O’ Connor
Fiction Pulitzer Prize winner

Don’t read this book unless you are church member, or a minister…
who has ever been discouraged…
or known someone who has.

Especially do not read this book if your family was perfect.

Told from the perspective of an Irish priest in a run-down parish in Boston,
this frank narrative explores the depths of discouragement and how it
can alter our perception of reality.

Not exactly a roller-coaster pace, there are some plot twists and
enough narrative tension to hold the book together.

Available on-line at Barnes and Noble www.barnesandnoble.com/

This was sent to me by Roberta

Thursday, April 13, 1967 DeRidder Enterprise

Teacher Appreciation Week, April 9-15

This is the second in a series of stories on the life of educators of this area.

It is appropriate that the community and parish honor an educator this week-Teacher Appreciation Week-and especially this man that has given so much of his life to the training of youth and to whom so many are indebted for the knowledge that he imparted and for the principles and high ideals that he has lived by.

Appreciation is expressed to the McReynolds family for the factual information furnished.

THE HOOSIER SCHOOLMASTER
By Esther N. Terry

Wilbert McReynolds (“Mr. Mc”) was born on September 25, 1889, the youngest of three sons of L.A. McReynolds in Posey County in the Southern tip of Indiana. His mother died before he was two.

He graduated from High School in 1908 and attended two terms at Indiana State Normal at Terra Haute. At 19 he left Indiana and went to Western Oklahoma and taught his first school near Fairview in 1909. He taught in Major County, Oklahoma four years. This school was a large one-room school, with eight grades in the one room. His salary was $45.00 per month and he received good room and board for $10.00 per month.

In 1913, the Wyoming Homestead fever struck and he staked his claim to a half section of land near Wheatland, Wyoming. He lived on the homestead and taught school there one year, but a four-foot snow and a girl he had met in Kansas made Wyoming homesteading less attractive.

He returned to school for two terms at Gunter Bible College, Gunter, Texas and one term at Harper College, Harper, Kansas where he was graduated in 1916. On August 27, 1916, he married Ruby Elston, the oldest daughter of the late Ben J. Elston. After a honeymoon in Kansas City, he moved to Harrison County, Missouri near Eagleville where he farmed and taught school for four years. The two oldest children were born here.

In 1920, attracted by the promises held in sunny Louisiana, he sold out and moved to the old homesite two miles West of Carson, in Beauregard Parish, La. The remaining seven children were born here.
His first school in Louisiana was taught at Grabow, one mile West of the Old Grabow Townsite. His larger students, Elmer Cooley, Roy Alston and Roy Hickman and others helped clear the big pine stumps to provide space for playgrounds. At Grabow he taught grades one through five.

In 1921 he was moved to Carson as Principal of the four-room school there.

He spent the next two summers at S.L.I. in Lafayette, meeting the requirements for a degree in Louisiana, which he received in 1925.

His next assignment was to Sugartown, where he taught High School two years, then became Principal over the six-member faculty. While he was Principal, he was told by the State High School Supervisor that he had the best High School in the Parish and that Sugartown would be recommended for accreditation. It was recommended and the school was accredited.

Mr. Mc. Was then assigned to the Principalship of Hyatt High School. After two years of service there, it too was accredited. The next school year Mr. Mc. was given the choice of continuing as Principal of Hyatt or moving home to DeRidder as the Science and Math teacher at the same salary of $185.00 per month. He chose to come to DeRidder mainly because he could be near the family home. This began his thirteen years at DeRidder High School.

The first year he had three sections of Physics of twenty-five students each and two large Math classes. The highlight of his first year was the winning of First Place in Physics in both the District and State Rallies by Harry Manning. In the years to come, there were many first or second place winners from his classes.

Mr. Mc. was troubled during the last years of his teaching career by failing hearing and vision. After unsuccessful surgery in January of 1942, Mr. Mc. was totally blind. After thirty years experience and twenty-one years service in Beauregard in the teaching profession, he was offered $23.00 a month retirement.

Mr. Mc. presently lives in the Carson community, South of DeRidder. Last August he and Mrs. McReynolds celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary, and were honored by the presence of all nine children, the first time in over twenty years, that the family had all been together.

Mr. Mc. stays well informed on current events through radio and talking books. He spends much of his time corresponding with the children and grandchildren. He maintains an intense interest in the Public School System of Beauregard with the desire that every child may receive a superior education.